For several years, the Los Angeles Dodgers dominated their matchups with the Colorado Rockies. Colorado has punched back this year, especially at home, where it has won four of the six meetings.
The Dodgers swept the Rockies in Los Angeles earlier this month and will try to extend their four-game, head-to-head winning streak over Colorado when the teams open a four-game series in Denver on Thursday.
The Dodgers will send left-hander Tyler Anderson (10-1, 2.79 ERA) against Colorado right-hander Jose Urena (1-2, 3.13) to begin the series.
The Rockies are coming off a dramatic, 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday that ended a two-game home losing streak. Colorado has won six of its past eight games in Denver.
Anderson started the season 8-0 and took his first loss against the Rockies on June 27. His former team touched him up for four runs on 10 hits over six innings, but he has bounced back. Over his last four starts, all in July, Anderson is 2-0 and has gone at least six innings in each outing while giving up a total of five runs (four earned) for a 1.42 ERA.
In his career against Colorado, Anderson is 0-2 with a 3.15 ERA in four appearances, three of them starts.
Anderson gets the ball after Los Angeles earned a 7-1 win over the visiting Washington Nationals on Wednesday to salvage the finale of a three-game series.
“The first two games didn’t go how we wanted, but to get it rolling early (Wednesday) gave us a lot of momentum,” left fielder/second baseman Gavin Lux said of the Dodgers, who scored six runs in the first inning on Wednesday.
Los Angeles got a little healthier ahead of the series with the Rockies. Starting pitcher Andrew Heaney, who had pitched just once since April 17 due to shoulder problems, threw four scoreless innings of one-hit ball, and Justin Turner returned from an abdominal injury to hit an RBI single and score a run.
“Getting those guys back is certainly helpful,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said.
Urena is set to make his fifth start for Colorado. He signed a minor league contract with the organization on May 19 and was recalled July 6 after Antonio Senzatela went on the injured list.
In his first three starts, Urena allowed just three runs across 18 2/3 innings, and he made quality starts against the Dodgers, the San Diego Padres and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He struggled at Milwaukee in his latest start, when he gave six runs — five earned — over 5 1/3 innings on Saturday, but it hasn’t dampened the team’s faith in him.
“He’s pitched great,” Colorado manager Bud Black said of Urena last week. “I think it centers around the fastball, fastball command and fastball with velocity down in the strike zone. I think that’s been probably the biggest factor of success that I’ve seen. And he’s got a good (fastball). It’s got movement and he’s producing some ground balls. He’s throwing strikes.”
Urena is trying to recapture his 2017 form, when he won a career-high 14 games for the Miami Marlins. In his career against Los Angeles, he is 1-2 with a 2.52 ERA in five games (four starts).
–Field Level Media